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Has anyone outfitted one of these printers for easy travel?

I am trying to figure out an easy way to move it for travel. Mainly for setups and shows, etc. For moving my house I would just crate it.

Thanks!

EDIT: I am talking more the best way to "carry" it. the uprights do not seem to be a good way to grasp and lift it, etc.

Passenger seat of your car? Or are you looking at flying it?

I take my machine to a Makerspace almost every week. It's much easier with the EZStruder setup than with the original side mounted Steve's extruder.

When it's hot after a print, you can push the lever of the extruder and pull the filament out of it. Then remove the spool (so it's no top-heavy) and lay it flat in the back seat of a car.

If you've got Steve's original extruder, retract 80-100 mm at the end of a print, then pop off one of the Bowden tube ends and pull the filament out. The spool holder / extruder assembly should be on a removable plug (like a cheap Molex from Radio Shack) so that you can separate the main machine from the "sidecar" for transport.

Jimustanguitar wrote:I take my machine to a Makerspace almost every week. It's much easier with the EZStruder setup than with the original side mounted Steve's extruder.

When it's hot after a print, you can push the lever of the extruder and pull the filament out of it. Then remove the spool (so it's no top-heavy) and lay it flat in the back seat of a car.

If you've got Steve's original extruder, retract 80-100 mm at the end of a print, then pop off one of the Bowden tube ends and pull the filament out. The spool holder / extruder assembly should be on a removable plug (like a cheap Molex from Radio Shack) so that you can separate the main machine from the "sidecar" for transport.

Curious where you grab it to lift. Or do you use 2 people?

Thanks!

I *try to carry it by the base, but inevitably you end up holding it by the aluminum extrusions when you're opening doors. The lower the better. In a perfect world, the printer would never "know" that it wasn't on a table still.

I would definitely avoid putting force on the top of the machine, that's where it's the weakest and tends to loosen up after repeated transports.

When Partsdaddy gets is big-assed Rostockus Maximus Prime done, he can print out a screw-in enclosure with handles. I've tried like hell not to touch anything but the base but you're right, it doesn't always work. So glad I'm working on an all-metal unit - still...just taking me four times as long to get it going.

I am beginning to think of making some type of reinforcing plexiglass that both keeps out peoples fingers and strengthens the top to the bottom.

When I move mine from place to place, I invert the hot end - move the Cheapskates down to the base one at a time. The arms then form a pyramid of sorts with the the hot end on top. Guarantees the nozzle won't strike the bed.

g.

geneb wrote:When I move mine from place to place, I invert the hot end - move the Cheapskates down to the base one at a time. The arms then form a pyramid of sorts with the the hot end on top. Guarantees the nozzle won't strike the bed.

g.

I thought of designing a "nozzle-holder" to protect it and then securing the cheapskates with bongo ties.

Lasivian wrote:

geneb wrote:When I move mine from place to place, I invert the hot end - move the Cheapskates down to the base one at a time. The arms then form a pyramid of sorts with the the hot end on top. Guarantees the nozzle won't strike the bed.

g.

I thought of designing a "nozzle-holder" to protect it and then securing the cheapskates with bongo ties.

I had some of those reusable zip ties with release tabs that I strapped around the aluminum extrusions as transport locks for a while. Unless you're doing the air-struder thing, I found that there's just not enough inertia to make it matter. I'd strap everything down in a moving van, but in my own car across town I haven't had any issues.